Cardinal Barbarin accused of lying over priest's sex abuse

By Béatrice Bouniol And Céline Hoyeau
La Croix International
January 10, 2019

https://bit.ly/2QPYdvG

The trial of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and five others has been extended to a fourth day.

Lawyers tried to convince a Lyon court on Jan. 9 that Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and his associates failed to inform the law about the sexual abuse of more than 70 children by priest Bernard Preynat from 1970 to 1980.

Nonetheless, the public prosecutor, like his predecessor in 2016, has requested no conviction.

But the victims are certain that Cardinal Barbarin and others knew of the abuse. Neither the trial nor the prosecutor's request has made any difference to their bitter certainty that they have had for the past four years: Cardinal Barbarin and his associates knew enough about the sexual abuse committed by Preynat to seek justice.

Alexandre, François, Mathieu, Stéphane … one after the other, on the afternoon of Jan. 8, they gave testimony in court of the trauma caused by the sexual abuse, and of how they have been confined by the Catholic Church's silence.

Christian Burdet, 53, asked in a trembling voice: "How different could my life have been, sexually, spiritually, professionally?"

He had just recounted being raped at the age of 11, the first in a series of sexual violations by Preynat.

"Perhaps legal action could have been taken against Preynat. But now, for me, the statute of limitations has expired," he said.

Burdet, a father of three children, said he came to court "not in a spirit of revenge" but for "these men of the Church to see [his] deep suffering, which could have been abbreviated if they had revealed and denounced the acts of abuse."

Elsa Loizzo, a lawyer for one of the victims, also spoke of the suffering "inflicted by the silence" of those who knew of Preynat's acts. She then cited the phrase used by Pierre Durieux, Cardinal Barbarin's former chief of staff, who described the suffering of Alexandre Hezez as a "gaping wound."

"The gaping wound, evidently, is Bernard Preynat but the gangrene is you," she said, accusing the six defendants.

"This is why it is intolerable to hear that reporting the abuse would have been to substitute yourselves for the victims."

On several occasions, the defense expressed surprise that the victims blamed the Church, and not their parents or other adults caring for them, for not having broken the silence.

"I blame them for having knowingly kept a dangerous man in contact with children. I believe I had no power," said Laurent Duverger, who in 2011 reported the abuse to Bishop Thierry Brac de la Perriere, then auxiliary bishop of Lyon.

Nonetheless, defense lawyers admitted that few parents knew anything of the abuse, as "it was difficult for these people, who had a trusting relationship with the Church, to understand what was happening."

According to Nadai Debbache, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, "it would have sufficed to legitimize the children's words" and she stated that "those who could have done so did not."

In his closing argument on Jan. 9, Jean Boudot, a lawyer for the victims, focused on proving that the obligation to report the abuse fell squarely on the cardinal and his entourage. According to the law, he pointed out, this obligation is aimed at protecting not only the victims but society at large and thus falls on anyone who is informed of the sexual abuse of a child, no matter what age the victim is when this abuse is revealed.

Boudot made particular note of the admissions made by Preynat to Cardinal Barbarin in March 2010 and stated that the cardinal knew — at least from this date but, he believed, well before — of this priest's sexual abuse of children.

"I say, Cardinal Barbarin, that you are a liar when you say that you only found out about the breadth of the damage through the testimony of Alexandre Hezez in 2014," he stated bluntly.

"Knowledge is not rumor. We do not expect the person who should report sexual abuse of a child to know all the details, but we expect him to report all the information that he does know," Boudot said.

Debbache stated that, in spite of directives adopted by the Church of France in 2011, the rules have not been applied for "fear of criticism of the institution."

She maintained that "the mentality has not changed" and quoted Jesuit Hans Zollner, a member of the Commission for the Protection of Children at the Vatican, who accused the Church of having "a fortress mentality."

The trial, originally scheduled for three days, has been extended to Jan. 10.